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Ho Ho Ho! It's another one of those funny old public information films.

Actually, no. This is really creepy. Or maybe I'm just applying my adult knowledge of what happens to people who don't listen to Donald Pleasence's advice.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTPE1nkEsRk&search=spirit%20of%20water" target="_blank">Don't go!!

I've just been reading the Dredd story 'Hard Day's Night' and I noticed a whole slew of graffiti shout-outs to various boarders. The one's I recognised being ukdane, El Spurioso, Art, Gary Wilkinson, Devon's Daddy and Oddboy. Sorry if I missed anyone.

Add in Judge Logan and it seems half the boarders are in there.

Anyone else had their fifteen seconds of fame in the background of a small, uneventful panel in a little known story?

Well, I thought I'd waste valuable minutes of my preciously finite life writing a totally pointless set of reflections on the last Slaine story. Having done that, I reckoned the only thing that could make the whole enterprise have even the smallest semblance of purpose was to post it here so you can all enjoy it too.

Cheers, Pete.


Every week, people race each other to post a review of the latest Prog before it?s even in the shops. That?s fair enough, but I?ve always thought that you only get the full measure of a story when you can read it from start to finish and I try to make the effort even when I really haven?t enjoyed a story.

Which brings us to Carnival, which I did not enjoy reading in weekly instalments. While none of the obvious criticisms are contradicted in re-reading, if you?re willing to give it a chance there are some redeeming features. The carnival itself as a narrative device for introducing a bunch of new characters is a great idea and the bravura opening spread with Ukko?s huckster?s introduction of the cast is a brilliant way of handling the necessary info-dump. It?s also a neat little fanboy reference to the very early days when Slaine was hawking himself around village fairs as a sideshow attraction. Unfortunately, by the time a character turns up again ? six weeks later ? you?ve completely forgotten what his particular peculiarity might have been.

Having set all this up, we could have reasonably expected an enjoyable character piece exploring the changed relationships between Slaine, Kai and Ukko while being introduced to some new supporting characters and the  dangling threads of future plots. The incomprehensible decision to turn the whole thing into Inspector Mac Roth is its undoing for two reasons. Firstly, Slaine is a character who generally solves a mystery by slicing it in half with his axe. I?m all for trying new directions, but this is so blatantly contrary to the spirit of the character that it seems, for a second, like somebody else has taken over writing the strip.

This may have been bearable if Mills had come up with a decent whodunit, but my second big problem is how miserably he fails in this regard. To be effective, a story like this has to give the reader enough clues to make him at least think he could figure it all out for himself, while still remaining relatively plausible when the rug is inevitably pulled out from under his feet. What we get instead, is a series of preposterous and unwieldy coincidences leading up to a conclusion which, rather than making you smile at the author?s clever sleight of hand, simply leaves you nonplussed by the completely contradictory revelation.

Compare this with the artful misdirection of ?Your Beating Heart?. Rereading that story once you know the punchline makes you appreciate the storytelling even more as everything still makes sense in light of the (admittedly daft) resolution. Going back over the scenes with the Shoggey family just infuriates. There is no subtle misdirection here. Skathan is explicitly characterised as a stroppy teenager: ?It?s not fair! I hate you! I hate you!? then we are simply told, ?Em, actually. NO. She?s forty.?

What the penguin feck?

Frustratingly, in amongst all this Mills can?t help but throw in a few decent moments. Ukko gets a few good lines, some of the carnival acts are great (the zombie band, Crom Dubh putting his detachable head in the lion?s mouth) and the scene with the Chitterling hanging up her washing is an inspired mix of the mundane and the fantastic.

The merits or otherwise of Clint Langley?s art get an airing every other week; I tend to find it murky and hard to follow and this tale was no exception. Reading it in one go, however, it didn?t seem so bad. Whether this was because I was more willing to concentrate on it or because it didn?t present the same distraction form the more traditional styles in an average prog is hard to say. Either way, I found it far less irritating than normal and was able to tease out more of the background detail than usual. I was also impressed with some of the layouts, particularly some of the double-page spreads at the start and finish of the story. Having seen the first episodes of the new ABC Warriors, however, it seems this is more likely to be down to Mills than Langley.

Despite these green shoots of hope, there are still some big problems with the art. Essentially, the flashy photoshopping is getting in the way of telling the story rather than helping it. First off, it?s just too dark: reading this under less than a 150 Watt bulb would be nigh on impossible. Then the characters are frequently in the wrong place in the panels and are usually staring off in completely the wrong direction. Couple this with awful scenes like the one where a whole page of dialogue seems to have been misplaced until you finally realise its not the two characters in the foreground who?re speaking and it becomes a real trial just to work out who is supposed to be doing what to whom. Never mind why!

The poor acting ability of the character models doesn?t really help matters either. Slaine seems to have much the same expression regardless of whether he?s in the middle of a titanic battle on some blasted heath or trying to get an eyeful of Skathan?s shoggey fanny on a sunny afternoon.

In conclusion, Carnival is a bit better than I remembered it ? its failings having overshadowed the good bits in my memory ? but it?s probably not worth the effort of rereading. And the hours spent writing this have certainly been a waste of time that I?ll regret on my deathbed.

So, I was wondering. When you're copy arrives on a Monday morning, does it actually fit through the letterbox, or do you have to go and pick it up from the local post office. Which would defeat the purpose of subscribing for me.

File alongside Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" and Lawnmower Deth's "I Think We're Alone Now."

Link: http://www.ninagordon.com/audio/straightouttacompton.mp3" target="_blank">Yo Dre, I got somethin' to say!

Snapped one of these up on the way home this afternoon: glad to see it just made it's scheduled February release date.

Not had a chance to read it yet as I only bought it 25 minutes ago and I was consumed by the nerdish internet-geek desire to be the one to start the thread!

Initial impressions are that the same care and attention has gone into producing this as the first volume and a shelf full is going to look great. Unfortunately there's no quirky extras like Walter's Wobot Tales, but looking at the side of the book they've had to include a lot more dead pages because of the increased number of splash pages this time out.

Watch out if you're heading for FP Glasgow to get this as the whole batch seems to have been unpacked and shelved by a particularly clumsy child and every copy I could find had some marking on the back from what I assume was packing material.

Oh well, I can't see any work getting done tonight as I get stuck into some serious Dredd action.

I've just been idly browsing through funt's spiffing 2000AD index and noticed that every episode of The Issigri Variations is named after a Nick Cave song.

I imagine I am not the first person to experience this startling revelation, but I thought I'd share it anyway.

I'm not much of a one for messageboards and what have you.

Some of them have a lively nightlife and others shut down at five o'clock, but the special few have tolerance for the guy who comes in from the pub and types a lot of pish.

How does this one rate on the bevvy-merchant scale?

I've just about finished this game on the Playstation. It's not bad, but not really what I was expecting. More of a first-person stealth-shooter rather than an adventure type thingy. Anyhoo, it's main distinguishing feature is the rather lovely cel-shaded cartoon style graphics, which give it a very comicy feel.

Apparently it's based on some French comic. Anybody read it and, if so, is the game art representative of the source?

It occurred to me that this might be a really cool - if slightly chancy - route for Rebellion to take with their future games. Imagine a Stronty Dog game in the style of Simon Harrison or ABC Warriors a la Bisley.

First off, I'm not trying to divine specific information about anyone's bank balance so I can send begging letters. Nor am I looking for advice on a dramatic change of career and I'm not trying to insult anyone.

Something I've been wondering about recently; is it possible to make a living out of writing for 2000AD/ Meg? Obviously, if your name's Wagner or Grant, the answer's yes. I also assume Gordon Rennie and Robbie Morrison are able to make ends meet.

I was thinking more about people like John Smith or Ian Edgington: guys who get a few stories published over the course of the year but whose names aren't in the credits week in, week out. Is that enough to pay the bills or are they moonlighting as insurance brokers or high-class call girls?

So, spurred into action by a half-price back issue sale in Glasgow's City Centre Comics and the ridiculous cheapness of E-Bay, I've just bought virtually every Prog from 1300 to 1450. Now I'm sitting back waiting for them to arrive.

The question is: am I going to be incapacitated by a mind-boggling thrill overload or bored senseless and give myself a hernia carting them down to the bin?

I know it's not going to be an issue until sometime around 2009, but I was just wondering if the "Complete Case Files" series is going to include the Dredd stories from the Megazine? I assume that, at the very least, it'll need to include stuff like the "Judgement Day" episodes that crossed over.

I've never bought a single issue of the Megazine. In fact, the prospect of Marvel-style crossovers forcing me to get it was one of the reasons I originally stopped buying 2000AD itself. Well, that and the fact it was pretty rubbish at the time... Oh well.

Cheers.

Hi guys. Mine is a familiar tale: I read 2000AD from sometime in the early 80s (I remember Destiny's Angels was the Dredd story in my first progs) until I gave up on it in the mid-90's (partly because times were hard as a student, and partly because Mark Millar wrote every other story) sometime after Inferno and before Justice One/Tenth Planet/Whatever it was called. Over the years I've skimmed Judge Dredd in Smiths until the sheer thrill-power of Total War (easily one of the half-dozen best Dredd stories I've ever read and, incredibly, still drawing on things I remember from first time around) forced me to think about signing up again.

Finally jumped back on (and picked up the previous ten or so progs) with 1450 and very nearly jumped back off again when I saw Bill Savage leering out at me...

How did this come to pass? When I was a lad, Bill Savage was a pariah, laughing stock and whipping boy all rolled into one even among the editorial staff. Whenever a letter was published complaining about a particular story, Tharg would point out that it could have been worse: Bill Savage could have been in it?

Basically, I was wondering if you could let me know what's been going on while I was away?

Cheers, Pete.